Unintentional Sparks
by TheWubber5
Summary: *ShiftyxPetunia*SplendidxGiggles-FlippyxFlaky-NuttyxLifty) Petunia desires more than the average relationships she's had before, but she doesn't know who could give her what she wants. Then two certain raccoons ransack her house, and one of those twins decides to leave his number. But she's not going to call, no, she's going to just throw it away. Mhm. (Rated M for a later chapter)
1. Chapter 1

I woke up and stretched, yawning loudly and wanting nothing more than to sink back in my bed. Its warmth was calling me back, summoning me into its sweet, procrastination-inducing embrace. I didn't let myself be seduced by the thought of "five more minutes", and instead got myself ready for work. I took a shower, washed my hands, applied my cream, applied my makeup, dried and tied up my hair, got dressed, the works. I looked like the perfect waitress, ready to take orders and serve up some smiles, as Pop liked to say. As I donned my short, white, short sleeved dress with my small white apron, I built up my tolerance for the day's customers. It usually wasn't very bad, to be honest. It was mainly when Disco Bear came in, or when Cub was in a bad mood. Otherwise, work was usually pretty tolerable.

Well, if you cut out the vast number of deaths looming over Happy Tree Town like some omnious figure, then it's really not too bad. With a sigh, and shake the thought out of my head and slip on my necklace, as well as putting my flower clip in my ponytail. I make a quick bowl of cereal and clean it up as fast as possible, not wanting to be late for work. I was already late twice this week, and I really didn't want to lose my job. It paid pretty good money, and I couldn't afford to work anywhere else long term.

I walked to work, deciding on walking after realizing that the amount of time it normally takes me to walk compared to the amount of time I had to get there before I was late was puny. There wasn't much going on that early in the morning, I saw and passed by Lammy with a wave. She looked at me and smiled, but didn't wave, instead putting her gaze to the ground she walked on, clutching her pickle tightly. I honestly felt bad for her, she was finding it so hard to make new friends. I felt especially bad because she'd been around for at least a month or two, and she was still struggling socially. I needed to invite her out sometime, maybe for lunch or something. Maybe try to ease her up a little bit.

Everything else was normal. Mime was out, which wasn't new, warming up for some kind of act he was involved in later that day. I heard that it was actually Cub's second birthday that day, so he may have been practicing for that party. I smiled and had a passing hope that nothing went wrong at that party, but I also knew not to keep my hopes up too high. No one around actually did, they just liked the small glimpses of hope. It was what kept everyone so happy, after all. Just those small chances of life.

Then I pushed those thoughts out of my head, not wanting to be depressed when I got to work. Naturally, I got myself cheered up by time I reached the doors. I was fifteen minutes early, which seemed to please Pop. I actually hadn't been expecting Pop to really be there, mainly because he almost never went to his own restaurant. He was always spending time with Cub (no matter how disastrous that normally ended up being), which made him usually forget he owned the place other than the bills he had to pay for it to function. I thought about how good it was that the place was never really empty. There was always at least four tables filled every day, which was apparently more than enough to keep the place running.

I turned to Pop, snapping out of my own reverie, and asked what he was doing there, since it was Cub's birthday and all. He smiled and responded as fatherly as ever.

"Well, I just wanted to check up on the diner. You know, make sure you guys are taking care of it well enough," he replied. I smirked, knowing that he knew full well that we wouldn't let the diner go under in any aspect. He seemed to read my mind. "You've all done a fine good job of keeping the place goin'. Good job."

He walked over and patted my shoulder before walking behind me and towards the doors, not saying another word. I knew he would be quiet that morning, because he was the type of man that didn't need many words. I figured that the place was already pretty much open, so I didn't bother checking to see if the doors were unlocked. I knew Pop had left them open, anyways. The doors made a weird clicking sound when they locked, and were silent every other time, like when Pop left.

Instead of flipping the sign to "Open", though, I kept it on its "Closed" side and used the time to polish up a bit before opening up for real. I wiped down the tables, checked and cleaned the seats, cleared out the bottoms of the tables, and cleaned anything else that needed it. It didn't take too long, just two or three minutes after the actual opening time. Not a big deal, especially since we only needed Toothy and Cuddles to show up to wait tables with me. I knew I'd need them soon, because more people were coming in, but I kept my cool as I led customers to their tables and took their drink orders.

They finally got there by time I was at my fifth table, and they took over three of those tables to make up for being late. They didn't give me a reason why they hadn't been there, so I didn't asked. I assumed that they had just overslept or something. They'd done it before, so it wasn't too strange. Just as I was about to take another table, Cuddles took it for me and let me have the next. I was a little annoyed about that until I saw that Giggles and Flaky were waiting to be seated. I beamed at my friends and grabbed their menus, leading them to our usual booth. I wished that I could join them, but I continued working, getting their drinks and orders. They got what they always got, three pancakes with maple syrup with a side of two sunny-side-up eggs for Giggles, and a kids' sized plate of silver dollars and hash browns for Flaky.

By the time they got their food, it was time for me to go on break. I had fifteen minutes, and I only got it because the customers had slowed down, and I knew Cuddles and Toothy could handle it. I plopped into the booth with Giggles and Flaky, sitting next to Giggles, and inserting myself into their conversation.

"So, what's the topic of the day?" I asked, eager to join in on a fun conversation with my girls.

Giggles grinned almost manically. "Boyfriends. I just got myself a new man, and Flaky here just started going steady with Flippy."

Flaky blushed and grinned to herself, her hands on her cheeks. "Shh, someone's gonna hear you!" she giggled softly.

"Aw, Flaky, good for you!" I said happily. "It's about time you two made yourselves an official item. You guys were practically married anyways."

Flaky blushed even harder, this time covering her entire face and squealing softly. I smiled at her and turned to Giggles, who I knew wouldn't react quite the same at the attention.

"So, who's this 'new man' you mentioned?" I asked, leaning an elbow on the table and resting on my cheek.

Giggles started as soon as I asked. "Well, he's that superhero, you know, Splendid?" she said, sipping her soda with pride.

I nearly fell out of my seat. "Woah, woah, _woah_. You're dating Splendid? Isn't he kind of a loner?"

The chipmunk beside me chuckled, her cockiness nearly bursting. "Well, he _was_."

I laughed and shook my head. "So, how did you guys actually end up talking?"

I watched as Giggles got in story mode. Flaky looked up again, interested in the story she'd probably already heard three times that morning.

"Okay, so, there was this car coming at me yesterday for no reason. I hadn't even jaywalked or anything! The driver was apparently sleeping or something, I'm not sure. Anyways, I started screaming and I felt like I couldn't move – I swear, I turned to stone. So, again, I was screaming my head off, calling for help, and _bam_ , there he was. He scooped me out of the way and carefully flew into the air. And when I mean carefully, I mean _carefully_. Other than getting me out of the way, he went oddly slowly, which I can't really complain about since what happened the last time when he _wasn't_ so careful." She left that to the imaginations of me and Flaky. We both cringed at the similar ideas we had. "Alright, so, when he put me down, he tried to fly away, but he was _really_ cute, and I had already been saved by him more than once before with no chance to say thank you or anything. So, I got him to stay long with me long enough to get him to come home with me." I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively, which made her laugh. "No, we didn't do anything. We just baked for a while and talked about some books. Turns out, he's into a lot of the stuff I'm into. We just kinda...clicked, you know?"

I laughed. "Ah, yes, and soon that whatever you two baked yesterday will form into a bun in your oven." Giggles laughed at that, while Flaky was confused for a minute before she got it, responding by blushing and giggling. Then I turned over to Flaky. "So, what made the mighty soldier want to start being official?"

"Oh, well, a-actually..." she smiled and grinned to herself again before taking a deep breath and looking up at us. "It was the _other_ Flippy that suggested it."

She let that sink in. It took a few moments for me and Giggles to process it, then we shrieked and held back our laughter. It was funny to think that that psycho could want a stable relationship with someone like Flaky, as sweet and lovable as she was. Giggles seemed to think like me, because she was sitting there holding her sides and mumbling something about a rose.

"Aw, you guys, don't laugh," Flaky said. We tried to stop but we couldn't. She just looked down at her hands, which were intertwined by now. "You should have seen him...he was so frustrated and he didn't know what to say, so he just kind of...blurted it out. It was really sweet and, well, scary..."

I watched her face glow with lovesickness and the blush painting her face an adorable shade of dark red. She was too precious. I wished for her type of excitement when it came to my love life, but, unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky. Giggles remembered this as well and looked at me with her brows raised a smirk on her face.

"What?" I asked. "Is there something on my dress?" I looked myself over, looking for an imaginary stain.

Giggles laughed to herself. "No, I was just wondering what your situation is like nowadays."

"My situation? Giggles, what are you talking about?" I said, trying to laugh it off. It obviously didn't work, because her stare just got slightly more intense. I sighed. "I haven't found anyone since Handy, and even then I don't think I want someone like him." That last bit wasn't meant to come out, so I regretted it as soon as I said it. Damn my big mouth!

"What _would_ you want then?" Giggles asked, an unbelieving grin on her face. "I mean, Handy was pretty much perfect. He was nice to you, took you on dates, and helped you cope without having hands that one time. What else could you want?"

"Well, besides the whole helping thing – that was _really_ nice – I want something more, well, intense. Actually, that's probably not the best word. It's...it's hard to put _in_ words." I was struggling on my line and no one was merciful enough to help me out until Flaky spoke up.

"You mean like Fliqpy?" she asked, trying to be helpful.

"Not...not exactly, but not wrong, either," I said, still trying to figure it out. Once you try to explain, though, it's hard to even think about it altogether.

Meanwhile, Giggles was staring at me like I had just sprouted giant wings from my back. It was like she couldn't even comprehend that I wanted something less...less...

"Traditional!" I shouted happily, completing my thoughts verbally, earning a stare or three. I coughed, attempting to calm down. "I-I mean, I want something less traditional. Everything with Handy felt like it was mapped out, like we were _supposed_ to be the way we had been, as if we were supervised or something."

Giggles made a noise that told me she didn't understand, but would be willing to try anyways. Flaky seemed to brighten a bit though, immediately agreeing with me and telling me that I didn't need to be a normal girlfriend in a normal relationship to be happy with it. I smiled at her, thinking about how odd her situation actually was. She had two boyfriends in the same body, and none of them qualified it as cheating. Well, Flippy was a little hurt by it at first, but when Flaky proved she didn't love one over the other, he became more relaxed and okay with it.

Giggles, though...it was pretty easy to see that she was a different kind of traditional. She was the type to jump from guy to guy, especially when she got bored with one or something just-so-happened to ruin her feelings for them. Cuddles had been her longest boyfriend (if you combined all the times they were on as opposed to when they broke up for a while), but I couldn't help but wonder if she felt the way I did, if at least a little.

I would have asked her if my break wasn't over and I was being called back in. I told my friends goodbye and reminded Giggles of our monthly shopping day being tomorrow. She just waved me away and assured me that I shouldn't worry about it. I turned to Flaky yet again, disappointment tugging at my features ever-so-slightly.

"Are you sure you can't come along? You loved it so much last time," I asked.

"Yeah, I did, but Flippy and I made plans before I realized it was so soon. I promise I'll make it next month, though."

I said okay, and that I would hold her to it, which made her laugh. They paid for their meals and I got back to work. I served a lot of tables that night and even went a little farther into my shift than I probably should have. Ah, well, the overtime will make it worth it. I clock out and say my goodbyes to the chef and Toothy, as Cuddles left as soon as his shift ended, and the other two still needed to man the night shift.

As I walked home, I thought about my conversation with Giggles and Flaky. It had been so hard for me to understand what the hell I was thinking, so I could only imagine what they thought of me. As I physically sighed, I rubbed my eyes, feeling the creeping sensation of exhaustion overwhelm me. I needed to take a shower and go to bed. I smiled yet again then, thinking about how I was lucky to survive that day, and that I didn't have to go through the refresh.

The refresh was always annoying because you don't remember anything when you wake up until hours later, when all of your memories of the previous day smack you in the face, and that's pretty much only when you die. No one (not even Sniffles!) had been able to explain that certain event. I didn't like thinking about it any other time, though, so I deemed it okay to push it away from my mind for the moment.

As I walked up to my door, I heard something strange, like rustling and poorly hushed shouting. Panic filled my mind as I figured out that someone else was in my home, which had been completely locked. I slowly unlocked and opened the door as quietly as I could, which seemed to work, because the people inside didn't notice.

As my door opened, I looked around. It was too dark to see anything, so I fully opened the door to let in the light. I saw Lifty and Shifty, who I had nothing but bad experiences with before, stealing and bagging pretty much everything I owned. They froze as they saw me, their eyes the sizes of dinner plates. I could see them wanting to run away, but they knew they had to finish their job. But before I could handle them, I looked everywhere else. It was the messiest my home had ever been. I could feel my heartbeat increase significantly and my breathing quicken. I tried to take deep breaths but I ended up breathing too quickly and not getting enough air, so I fainted.

 _End of Chapter_


	2. Chapter 2

I was groggily brought back to consciousness by the sound of rough rustling and thuds. My eyes opened slowly as I tried to remember what had happened when I passed out, then once my vision came back to me, I saw Lifty and Shifty arguing about something being dropped. I wondered what it was they had dropped, and then I looked down.

They had dropped my TV.

Fantastic.

Not to mention the shards of glass that laid around my floor and spread basically every where. I started to get up to clean up the mess so I wouldn't have another extreme attack, but I was pinned down by the ropes that held my arms behind my back and my legs to the chair I was sitting on. Then I wanted to yell at them to get the binds off me so I could clean up the glass, but my mouth was gagged.

Tears filled by eyes as I tried to take deep breaths, but was stopped by the gag. I tried to take deep breaths through my nose, but that wasn't enough. I started to struggle as I couldn't calm myself down and I suddenly couldn't breathe. My struggling made quite a bit of noise apparently, because I got both of the twins to look at me, clearly annoyed by my sudden movement. They stopped arguing long enough for one of them to walk up to me and hiss in my face, demanding I be quiet.

I felt a tear slide down my cheek as my head started to feel light. I had to stare at the thief's face otherwise I would be stuck with staring at the wreck that used to by my home and it would just make things worse. It was so hard to keep myself calm enough to breathe, because I was just barely getting enough air in and I could feel that panicky sensation that you typically get from suffocation.

I really didn't want to die that day, everything had been going so smoothly. But it seemed that these two just wanted to get my stuff loaded into their van and leave me to die. Not like I was surprised, they had always been greedy cowards from what I've known. They even seemed to be that way towards each other, but only Shifty seemed to act against his brother. Any sign of danger that could bring him profit without his brother and the older twin couldn't be found. He seemed to be quite the scumbag.

Of course these thoughts only came in chunks as my thought process kept being interrupted by the memory that I was slowly suffocating. I jumped in my chair, trying to do something, _anything_ , to get the gag off my mouth so I could breathe. The younger twin, Lifty, scowled and yanked at my apron, pulling me down and holding me there. I felt an internal sense of fear, and I didn't know what to do. My eyebrows knitted together and pointed upwards in worry, trying to display that I was just trying to get some damn air in.

I tried and failed to get air in through my gag as tears filled my eyes. The thick filter over my mouth made a strange noise as oxygen attempted to slip through. Lifty ignored this, and Shifty seemed to hear it, because I heard him say something. This must have surprised Lifty, because the younger twin looked back and whisper shouted something like a curse. I was unsure because now I was near blacking out.

Then I heard a grunt, and I felt a pair of hands on the back of my head. The gag was loosened and now hanging around my neck. Once my body realized that it could take in air again, I took in as much as possible, coughing and letting the tiny tears spill as my lungs ached and my throat began to hurt. I didn't care about the pain because my head started to spin as oxygen reached it again and it could process more than the fact that it was dying once more.

I _was_ going to thank Shifty for not letting me die, but I looked around again. The mess around me was insane. There was broken glass from the fallen TV, drawers tossed and their contents strewn about, pens, more glass, and more _mess_. She wanted to scream. Instead, she shut her eyes tight and tried to steady her breathing with deep breaths, happy to have the air back to do so. Lifty seemed surprised at this, because he voiced his confusion very clearly.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he asked, his voice sounding confused with just that tiny hint of aggravation.

Petunia calmed herself in a few more breaths before answered properly. She did this by keeping her eyes closed and moving her head towards them. She assumed they were right in front of her.

"I was trying to keep from having an attack," she said simply. "You left the damn place a mess!"

There was a bit of silence. I peeked my eyes open and saw the boys ready to bust a gut laughing. Lifty hauled a bag over his shoulder and let himself laugh, and I opened my eyes fully, focusing on him. Shifty looked at me, something I noticed out of the corner of my eye. I looked over to him quickly, and he lifted a bag over his shoulder as well. I wanted to ask him what it was they were taking, but I chose something a little more practical to distract him with.

"So I'm gonna take a swing and say you're not going to untie me?"

He looked back at me, glanced at his brother (who was already halfway out the door and now looking at me as well), then walked towards me. He leaned down, gave me a nice, too-warm smile, and shook his head. I furrowed my brows and glared while imagining little daggers slicing that little smirk right off his face.

"Fuck you," I spat. Then I got an idea. It was stupid, but it would hopefully keep me from freaking out to death. I put this idea into audible words as he got up to leave. "Wait, can you at least clean this up? I mean I'm practically giving you my things." They were just things, and they would be back with the refresh anyways. "I'll do something for you."

Lifty seemed disinterested, but I swear I saw a devilish glint in Shifty's eyes. I felt a chill crawl down my back.

"Is there anything you _won't_ do?" he asked sweetly, trying to be a smartass.

I rolled my eyes, but inside my head I was screaming to take it back. My voice betrayed my thoughts.

"Whatever it takes to get you to clean up this mess before I find a way to choke all of us with my gag."

Shifty laughed at this, clearly amused. I wasn't laughing on the inside – quite the opposite, actually – but I laughed with him. Better for him to think that I wasn't actually near the point of violence. I could feel my bones begin to hollow out and I realized that I was feeling the beginning of an adrenaline rush. I looked at his face and all I could see now were the little details and the smudges of dirt and grease caked into his fur, as well as old sweat making his fur look hard. I wanted nothing more than to shove him into a shower and scrub his fur until nothing but red spilled through the water, but I suppressed that for the moment.

He inspected me for a moment – I felt like a wreck, by the way. I felt all my sweat matting my fur and my hair be tangled up by the chair behind me. It was not a good feeling – and I resisted the urge to sink down so he couldn't be so close. I could hear a groan from Lifty behind him, but he was ignored by Shifty, who nodded and smirked. Through that smirk, I could see a couple of sharp teeth, which was a little intimidating.

"Alright, we'll play ball," he said, his voice amused.

He stood up tall as Lifty shrank. "Shifty, now is not the time for us to dick around with this bitch so you can get a quick fuck!" he yelled, his anger obvious.

Shifty stopped smirking, and scowled. He turned around and grabbed his brother's cheek fur, yanking Lifty's ear towards his mouth. He muttered something I couldn't hear, then Lifty rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, and reluctantly agreed. I figured that he had no say. Ah, well, he helped the mess, so I didn't feel bad for him.

As they worked, I tried to avoid talking to Lifty, who already seemed a little too grumpy for conversation. Shifty, on the other hand, was more than willing to engage in a conversation with me. I was a little thankful, though this distracted him and I had to quickly remind him when he stopped altogether to tell me something, but that he could also continue. I wondered about his attention span for a brief moment before remembering that I wasn't supposed to care.

"So, why'd you pick my house?" I asked. I had been wondering for a little while. "I mean, I don't have the best stuff."

"You have a nice couch, jewelry, good perfume," Shifty replied, counting off things in his head. "Expensive silverware, fine china, fancy clothes, and other shit that we just knew people would buy. Of course, the TV was going to be our best thing to hock, but you know why we can't do that now."

I made a noise of understanding, then asked, "So, you took it all?"

"Not all of it." He lifted a couple dresser drawers and carried them back to their room. He didn't finish what he was saying until he came back to the living room. "We left your bed. We couldn't lift it anyways. We also left your diary." He said this with a grin, staring at me and watching for the realization.

Of course that didn't come until I understood that he had to find it. And, being a natural scavenger, the little bastards looked through it. My face went red from both embarrassment and a flare of anger, and Shifty laughed, picking up some other heavy thing and carrying it away.

"What did you see?!" I yelled, needing to know. Lifty finally smirked, knowing what he had seen. Then he started laughing while also picking up the larger shards of glass before getting a vacuum and getting the rest up that way.

Shifty came back in with a bit of sweat on his brow and he looked around. I did as well, having not looked around before in fear of having an attack if it wasn't done. Everything looked the way it did before, besides all of my stuff being gone. I breathed easier, and Shifty held his arms out expectantly. I looked him up and down and raised an eyebrow.

"Well?" he said, that dumbass grin getting bigger.

"Well _what_?" I asked, leaning forward and narrowing my eyes.

"Aren't ya gonna thank me and my brother for being so kind?"

I laughed. "Why would I thank you? You wrecked the house in the first place."

He made a mock thinking gesture and apparently that was Lifty's final straw. He cursed loudly, stomped to the door, grabbed his sack of my things, proclaimed that he would be in the van when his "dumbass horndog brother" was ready to leave. I raised both eyebrows in surprise and flinched when he slammed the door shut. I swear I heard a cracking sound near the door as he did it.

"Sorry, doll," Shifty said, a few moments after Lifty left. "He's a bit of an impatient little imp."

"...'doll'?" I asked, not even concerned about Lifty.

Shifty grinned, and wrote something down on his hand. When he leaned down towards me again, he stuffed something into my apron pocket. It looked like a piece of paper, but I couldn't read what he wrote. He stood up again then, and turned around to leave. I called out to him one more time.

"What?" he asked, looking at me expectantly yet again.

"Are you really not going to untie me?"

He smirked, walked out the door, and closed it.

I cursed under my breath, and tried to find a way out of the binds myself. They had tied them well, because I couldn't find a single way to untie myself. I groaned to myself, knowing that even though the refresh would put me back in my bed, I would still have an uncomfortable time getting to sleep. I tried anyways, letting my head fall forwards and closing my eyes. I counted sheep and played a lullaby song in my head, but it didn't seem to work.

After what felt like hours, though, I finally managed to get to sleep. I didn't have a clear dream that night, but I remember a lot of blended colors swirling around with money signs all around me.

 _End of Chapter_


	3. Chapter 3

I sat up and stretched, not even thinking twice about the fact that I was in my bed. I knew that I would be, I always woke up there, whether I had survived the previous day or not. What I actually had to stop and do a double take on was the slip of paper on my bedside table. I had never had that there before, and seeing it then was strange, and a little scary. I picked it up and found a phone number. Shifty's name also graced the slip, right under it with a sloppy heart after the "y" in his name. I don't know if I could have rolled my eyes any more than I did when I saw the scrappy doodle.

But the number was what actually caught my interest. Was this what Shifty had slipped into my apron pocket? Why did he give me his number? He just robbed my house. Then again, that didn't really matter. Thanking my stars that I had the day off, I got up and put the paper back on the table. I took my shower and got the rest of my routine done rather quickly, but instead of making myself look like a waitress, I made myself look like a cute and casual girl.

I knew the weather would be warm, so I chose a light blue pair of jean shorts, and a pale yellow T-shirt, along with a white pair of flip-flops to go with it. My hair was tied up in a neat ponytail and then the band got one of my many flower barrettes clipped onto it for aesthetic reasons. I slipped my tree necklace around my neck and I felt ready to go. I was meeting up with Giggles that day for our shopping trip, so I put all of my focus on that. Then I thought about it, and figured bringing the note wouldn't be the _worst_ thing in the world. It wasn't like I was calling him, I was just making sure that I didn't lose it or it didn't disappear from the refresh. I was subconsciously hoping that it was just a glitch in the system, but one can never be too careful.

If I had really thought about it back then, I would have slapped myself and told myself that I really shouldn't worry about the number of a thief. After all, he hadn't even untied me! It was stupid to get hung up over it. By the time I actually completely justified it in my head, I told myself that I would just throw it away myself to make sure it would be gone. Simple as that.

Looking back on it, I guess I could have thought it through better than that. I should have remembered that I was terrible when it came to people giving me numbers. I always had to call or else I felt as though I was being rude. I could never ignore it, not even when Disco Bear gave me his number. As much as I resisted, I couldn't help myself. I called him and we went out on a date that not only ended with someone being maced, but also us falling from a cliff in his car. Fun.

But of course, I took the number with me. It stayed in my pocket the entire time I spent time with Giggles. On the other hand, I was able to forget about it for a long time while we looked at clothes. We rated each other's outfit choices on a scale of one to ten, and the only reason this would ever work is because we have similar clothing tastes.

So, when I picked up a dark purple dress with a low neck, no sleeves, and a knee-length skirt and eyed it carefully, Giggles did the same. Then a smile grew on her face. She rushed towards me and took the dress away, pressing it up against me in a quick judgment of how it would look on me. I felt like a child for a moment until she started squealing and jumping up and down. I felt at least ten years older at soon as her feet went off the ground.

"This is an absolute _ten_!" she exclaimed. "Oh, Petunia, you always pick out the best stuff! This would look incredible on you! You _have_ to try it on!"

I couldn't have protested even if I wanted to. She shoved me into a dressing room without another word, at least to me. She told the cashier I would be trying on one thing, and then I was alone in a tiny space with a mirror, the dress's hanger in my hands. Giggles was waiting for me to come out with it on, so I took off my jeans and shirt and slipped the outfit on easily, carefully getting my tail through the tailhole. It fit like a glove, and after some minor touching up to make it look the way it was intended, I was amazed. I hadn't worn anything so mature or elegant since the Romeo and Juliet play I was a part of in high school.

While I hate to sound so self-serving, I looked really good in that dress. I seemed to even glow a bit, I was so happy with it. I twirled around in it, despite the lack of a billowy skirt. The skirt itself wasn't even that tight, it just hugged my thighs just enough for me to be unable to try to do the splits. If I were able to, that is.

When Giggles became impatient and knocked on the door, I opened it wide. She immediately took in my appearance and she squealed again. She started going on how she was exactly right, that I looked just as fantastic as she knew I would, and then she made a joke about me finding it because I was preparing for someone. I shook my head at her, but didn't say anything. Shifty's number flashed into my mind again, and I pushed it away yet again. I didn't want to think about that when my love life was brought up by my best friend. It felt so strange.

As we shopped on, I found some other things I liked, which was basically a couple of shirts and a ring or two. Then Giggles found some things, and we got something to eat. As we ate, we both gushed over the dress until she mentioned something involving the world "super" and my mind connected to her new beau.

"So, have you seen Splendid at all since he broke bread with you?" I asked, a small smile playing on my face.

She raised a brow at my lame joke and shook her head, choosing not to mention it. "Actually, we went out last night, a couple hours after I left the diner. He called me and asked me out on a date."

"I need details right now," I said with a wicked grin. She held back a smile, but she couldn't hide the joy from her eyes. The date went well and I needed to know about it.

"It wasn't anything incredibly fancy, just some dinner," Giggles said passively. "But he did fly around with me a bit. It was so romantic, I felt like a princess." This was where her smile finally cracked through. "He held me so close, and he was so warm...it was like a dream, Petunia."

"I'm glad you're having fun," I said. "So, do you think you'll be able to actually find any reason to break up with this one?"

She thought long and hard about it, staying quiet for a moment, letting her smile fall in her concentration. Then she shook her head.

"I can't find anything that really stands out," she said, the smile appearing yet again. "I think I found the perfect guy. I really do."

"You think you can handle that commitment? I mean with great relationships comes great responsibility," I said with a smirk.

I got a swift punch in the arm for that, but it wasn't like it hurt. She laughed at my comment anyways. After that, we got up to throw our trash and walk through a few more stores until we reached a shoe store, something that seemed to be Giggles's specialty. She immediately dragged me to the different aisles, looking through the boxes and displays. I wasn't sure why she was so excited to show me shoes, but I went along with it anyways, the bags with our clothes hanging in our arms and fluttering with our trailing breeze.

When she stopped our movement without a word, I nearly knocked into her. I would have aggressively asked what the hell was wrong with her, but then I noticed her finger pointing at something. I followed the direction with my eyes until I saw what it was she was so excited about. I felt a surge of joy myself at the sight of the black heels. They were medium-height, and they weren't made of the shiny leather I was used to, but instead a sort of matte material I couldn't name. They also had tiny dark purple markings that were made to look like vines, and they reached from the pointed heel all the way to the toe, but they weren't as obnoxious as one may expect. They were subtle, but not subtle enough to be practically invisible. I immediately fell in love with those shoes, and promptly tried them on.

They fit incredibly well, and I could walk in them without feeling like I was going to topple over any minute. I didn't wear heels often, but I could manage to wear these every day of my life, if I had the chance. I knew I couldn't, and that they would have to be for a very special occasion, and then I realized that I could only wear them with the dress.

"I found these a few days ago when I had to go to some party, and I knew you would love them. I was saving them for your birthday, but, with that dress..." she trailed off and sighed happily. "I just couldn't resist. I'll just say it's your early present."

"Wait, are you trying to say that you're going to buy these?" I asked, raising a brow. "I don't know...are you sure? I mean..." I checked the price and nearly blanched.

"Don't worry about it," Giggles said passively, waving a hand as if to brush away my concern. "Like I said, it's an early birthday present, and you obviously want them. I have the money, if you're worried about that."

"But..."

"Petunia, I told you, don't worry about it. I want to buy these for you."

She offered a smile, and I smiled back, trying to hold back the rising comments that would surely cause an argument. I figured I could just pay her back later somehow, and it would be fine. Naturally, I forgot to do that as time went on, but it's the thought, right?

After she dropped me off at my house – we always preferred to ride together, it saved money and the ride always allowed us a little more time to talk to each other – I walked in and put the bags in my room, taking out the items and putting them where they belonged, folding up the bags and neatly placing them in the trash. I shimmied out of my shorts to get ready for a shower, and checked the pockets to make sure I hadn't put anything important in them. I found the slip of paper, and I knit my brows together, wondering why I had forgotten to throw it away.

Ah, well, I have trash cans at home. I could have just thrown it away then and got it over with. But my shower was more important then. Then my nightly ritual, with the removal of my makeup and the brushing of my hair. I brushed my teeth, put on some lotion, slipped on a pair of pajama shorts with little bananas dotted on them with a matching monkey – completed with the phrase "Driving me _Bananas!_ " under the monkey – tank top to go with it, and went back into my room only to find the paper on the bed.

Damn, I had forgotten about it again. I picked it up and read Shifty's number out loud again, dreading my next move, which felt inevitable at the time. I went into the kitchen and grabbed the phone hanging on the wall, dialing his number and letting it ring. By the time it got to the third ring I was ready to hang up and let it lie. After all, he could be handing his number out like candy to any girl in town. Granted, there was only three of us by then, but still.

Then I heard it pick up.

"Hello?" Shifty's low voice asked.

 _End of Chapter_


	4. Chapter 4

I was silent, somehow shocked that his voice was actually coming through _my_ phone. I didn't say anything while I reflected on this, completely forgetting that I had just willingly called someone and now they were waiting for me to say something. I must have sounded so creepy, either just making strange noises instead of words or staying silent in general. He cleared his throat, most likely trying to get me to speak. I finally said something and immediately felt like an idiot afterwards.

"Uh...hey...it's the girl that you um, robbed last night..."

I nearly slapped myself, but he replied before I could.

"Oh, hey," he said, his voice amused. "I wasn't expecting you to actually call me. What, did you miss my sexy voice?"

I suddenly had the desire to slap him instead of myself. "Actually, I was just checking to see if this was even your number. You can't really trust thieves, you know."

"Oh, hun, I know that feeling all too well," he said with a faux feminine voice. "So if you really wanted to make sure, why didn't you call earlier?"

I wasn't sure how to lie about it, so I just told him. "I was busy with my friend today, we went to the mall." I leaned against the kitchen counter, figuring the conversation wouldn't take too long, what with his ego already irritating me.

"The mall? Damn, you must have a fat paycheck," he said with a chuckle. "Everything at the mall is so expensive. I couldn't buy a shoe there."

"I guess that explains why you take other people's shoes," I joked with a small laugh.

He laughed as well, and I found that I quite liked his laugh. It was low and quiet, but it felt genuine. It had been a while since I heard a real laugh from a guy, to be perfectly honest, and it was nice to hear that for once. It made me feel like he actually enjoyed my stupid humor instead of faking it to make it easier for me to sleep with them.

"So then what about yourself?" I asked, unsure of where the sudden burst of curiosity came from. "What have you been up to today?"

"Nothing really," he said with a small sigh. "Lifty was sick so I had to stay inside and take care of him."

"Aw, that's too bad. What does he have?" Why I was suddenly so interested in this guy's life, I had no clue. But I knew that I _was_ interested, so I just asked what I could to let it out and never call him again.

"I think he just had a cold, but he was coughing real bad," Shifty sighed, setting something down on his end. "I was worried it was something serious for a while. I guess we were just lucky today."

"Well...is he okay now?"

"Yeah, he's sleepin' in the other room. I was actually going to go to bed before you called."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you," I hurriedly said, ready to hang up and leave it be.

But he stopped me. "No, don't worry about it. I'm a lot more interested in you than my bed."

I blushed a little then, then I shook my head, remembering to remain in control. For all I knew, he was a major playboy that toyed with women like they were just dolls. I couldn't let myself fall for his stupid lines and bursting bravado. It wouldn't happen. But then he actually started asking me about myself. Well, at least my day at the mall. He made little comments here and there, told little jokes and got aggravated with me when I complained about the store clerk that kept giving me and Giggles strange looks when we _obviously_ pulled off a cute outfit way more than she _ever_ would.

It went on for a while, maybe a little over half an hour before Shifty decided he was too tired to keep talking, so we both hung up. I leaned against my kitchen counter and crossed my arms, not noticing until right then that my legs were significantly tired of standing up. I hopped onto the counter absentmindedly and thought about what I had just done.

I had called Shifty. I had done what I had vowed to myself I wouldn't do that very morning. Why I had done it, I had no idea. Maybe curiosity had really controlled me enough to do what I had thought of as unthinkable earlier that day. I wondered if I had just doomed myself to something bad, but then I realized that I had actually enjoyed talking to him. He seemed like a nice guy with decent intentions. At least, he did for now.

I wasn't sure how things would play out then, as I sat on that counter, leaning forward and staring out the window next to me, subconsciously replaying the night we more formerly met when he had broken into my house. I went over every detail of that night from the moment I woke up tied to a chair. I sat there for a while like that, just thinking about it over and over. What I didn't know then was that we would have our own routine.

After that one night, we would call each other back and forth every night. It became something that I looked forward to as soon as I walked in the door from work or shopping or whatever I had done that day. It did make my days a bit slower because of my anticipation that would last through the whole day. At least, that was the affect during the first week or two.

After a couple months, it became such a daily part of my life that I didn't think of it as anything completely special. Of course, I did appreciate that he was taking the time out of his obviously tired nights to talk to me, but then again, I was doing the same for him. But I never told anyone about it, I kept it my dirty little secret and hoped he did the same. I don't really know why I felt like I needed to keep it to myself, I knew that my friends wouldn't mind if I explained how good of a guy he actually turned out to be.

Maybe it was because I had told him things I had never told anyone but Giggles and Flaky. I told him about my parents and their accident when I was younger, and how I wandered into the eternal death trap that was Happy Tree Town. I told him all about my OCD and how much I wished for it to just go away and how much it ruined my life at times. I told him about feelings and problems and thoughts and all kinds of things that had stayed between my two closest friends and I.

Then I learned about him. I learned how he and his twin had been dumped in Happy Tree Down in the streets when they were teenagers because their widowed father couldn't afford them any more. I learned about all of his desires to be rich and to leave the town behind, and even to take his brother with him. I learned about every dream and fantasy and breakdown he had ever had, or at least every one he had remembered and decided to tell me about.

By the time six months had rolled around, we knew each other down to our blood types. I felt such a comfort with him, something so close and delightfully relaxing. It was like if I talked to him that day, any stress I felt was washed away and able to be vented out in a safe and supportive environment. I absolutely adored it.

The only thing I couldn't stand were the nights where at least one of us had died that day. When I went home and waited for the ring of the phone until I got impatient enough to call him myself and his voice never came, I would go to bed with a mixture of emotions. I wouldn't be sure what to do with myself that night. If I happened to be dead, I would wake up the next day upset and wondering if he had felt the same way I would if he were dead.

Other than nights like those, those six months were nothing but pure bliss to me. I loved every second of it. So I decided it was time to take it a step further.

He called, just like every night, and I answered quickly.

"Hey Shifty," I greeted cheerfully, trying to keep the growing anxiousness out of my voice.

"Hey, dollface," he replied, his low voice taking on its usual sweet tone. "How was work today?"

"Well, I took the day off," I admitted. "I had a bad cough and I was worried it was something bad. Turns out it was just allergies." I tried to laugh but the mixture of nervousness and excitement for what I was about to ask him made it sound as forced as it felt.

"You sure you're alright? You sound weird tonight."

"N-no, I'm okay. I was just wondering about something."

"What is it?"

I swallowed hard, trying to be quiet. "I-I was wondering if you maybe...well, if you don't happen to have any plans this weekend...if maybe you would want to possibly go to dinner with me?"

"Like a date?" he asked, sounding more amused than my heart could handle.

"Y-yeah, like a date," I repeated, sounding like a terrified parrot.

I could practically hear his grin. "Alright, how about this Friday. Seven thirty?"

"Sounds g-great. See you then."

"Alright then, bye."

"Bye."

He hung up and I fell to the floor. My breathing quickened slightly and I covered my suddenly blushing face with my hands, screaming into them. I couldn't tell what I was more excited about, the fact that I was going to be going on a date after nearly a year of a bare love life, or that I was going on a date with Shifty. I felt like a giddy teenager again.

Then I looked at the calendar and noticed that the next day was Friday.

I screamed into my hands again.

 _End of Chapter_


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